In Pursuit of Redemption: Reading The Poisonwood Bible Anonymous 12th Grade

Youth is malleable. A child’s surroundings, after all, shape the person that the child becomes. Leah Price, who witnesses the most dynamic shift in Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Poisonwood Bible, consistently challenges the established culture of the charismatic Congolese atmosphere by breaking down gender roles and taking on the mature responsibilities that her sisters often avoid. Leah is characterized by conflict and passion, always actively working to approach her life’s struggles with brevity despite her constant internalized religious and familial debates. The Poisonwood Bible – with a narrative based in outlining the various forms of redemption – is heavily reliant on Leah Price’s shift to open-mindedness in her worldview, asserting that in order to challenge the inequity of a rigidly unjust surrounding, one must actively work to defy the limited expectations placed in front of them and understand conflict from points of views besides their own.

Leah Price is easily defined as a feminist. In her ever-maturing perspective on life, she learns to never succumb to the patriarchal social structure established by her father or the community in which she lives. Such defiance is countered by her fourteen-year old self that...